Police burgle Jonathan’s Abuja home

An Abuja home of former President Goodluck Jonathan has been burgled, Premium Times can confi rm. However, in what appears a curious twist, the house was not burgled by thieves, but by police offi cers assigned to guard the house. Th e Nigeria Police have thus arrested three of its offi cers for stealing items valued at several millions of naira from the Abuja residence of the former president. Th e items were alleged to have been stolen by the offi cers from the residence located at No. 89, Fourth Avenue in the Gwarimpa district of Abuja.

Th ey included sets of furniture, dozens of plasma television sets, refrigerators, air-conditioner units and box-loads of clothes such as designer suits imprinted with the former president’s name, male and female Ijaw traditional attires, lace materials and bowler hats.

Premium Times exclusively gathered that the three mobile police offi cers conducted a systematic looting over a period of three months beginning from around March 2016, until they totally stripped the house of all movable items, which they sold piecemeal to dealers at the Panteka second-hand materials market in Tipper Garage, Gwarimpa. Jonathan’s spokesperson, Ikechukwu Eze, confi rmed the theft to Premium Times.

He also confi rmed that the aff ected offi cers have since been arrested. According to a security source involved in the investigation, by the time family members of the former president were made aware of the looting early this month, the house had been stripped bare.

On getting wind of the arrest of the policemen, two dealers who had been the main recipients of the stolen items were said to have closed down their shops at Panteka market and had since remained at large. Jonathan had lived in the house for about a year when he was vice president. His mother was said to have assumed residence thereafter Jonathan moved to the Aso Rock Villa upon becoming Acting President in 2010. It could not be ascertained when and the reason Jonathan’s mother vacated the residence, leaving it under security guard of the police.

Our investigations revealed that the looting was discovered when a neighbour noticed “severe damage to the house” and called a member of Jonathan’s family to ask whether or not the house was undergoing renovation. Th e former president was said to have personally gone to inspect the property after which he reported the vandalism to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris. After a team of offi cers dispatched to the scene confi rmed the crime, Idris was said to have ordered the arrest of the three police offi cers who were still on guard duty at the residence.

“Th ey were arrested about two weeks ago,” the police source familiar with the development told this newspaper on Tuesday, last week. A trader at the Panteka market, who confessed to being close to one of the fl eeing buyers of the stolen items, was interviewed by Premium Times undercover reporter. According to the trader who declined to be named, the police offi cers fi rst brought some items to the market for sale in early 2016.

“It all started sometimes around March 2016 when a mobile police sergeant came to Tipper Garage market and brought some items for sale. He approached one of the wholesalers to buy them, but the trader said he does not buy items from an unconfi rmed owner,” he said. “He identifi ed himself as Sergeant Musa and told the trader that he was one of the security men guarding Mr. Jonathan’s private residence at Gwarimpa. He took the trader to follow him to confi rm that he was not a thief who had come to sell off stolen properties in the market.

“Th e trader followed him to the residence where he met two other policemen, an inspector and a sergeant. Th ey convinced him that the items were part of gifts to them.” Th e source also said it was not long before he noticed that the stream of transactions had no end, as the Sergeant Musa continued to invite the trader to the residence to pick up fresh items.

“At a point, the trader became scared when he suspected foul play and told Sergeant Musa that he was no longer interested in the transaction,” he said. He said Musa, however, got another customer, a wholesaler in the market, who would eventually buy almost 80 per cent of all the properties removed from Jonathan’s residence.

When Premium Times’ undercover reporter went to the Tipper Garage market, he found out that both the purchase and resale of the items were not hidden, as many of the traders were aware of the racket.

“Whenever particular or specifi c items of our interest were brought for sale from Mr. Jonathan’s residence, we used to buy from the wholesaler who bought them in large quantity,” a trader said.

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